Thursday Night Player Recap/Grade

Denver 

QB

Peyton Manning -- Manning had possibly the biggest fantasy scoring game of any quarterback for this season in this game A+

RB

Ronnie Hillman -- His performance was not a disappointment because he didn’t get the carries or start that we thought he would get but managed 15 rush yards and 27 receiving. D+

Montee Ball -- Carries were spread between the three backs and Ball got 24 yards but no catches.  D-

Knowshown Moreno -- Moreno was the suprise start at tailback but received only 9 carries for 28 yards but managed 37 recieving yards. C

WR 

Wes Welker -- Welker's first game as a Bronco was successful despite his dropped punt.  He will take two touchdwons and 67 yards on a ton of targets. A-

Demaryius Thomas -- I was right that Thomas would have a big game but he had an even bigger game than I anticipated with 2 tds and 160 yards. He was shaky in the begining but had two fourth quarter tds. A+

Eric Decker -- Decker had a very dissapointing game as the 3rd WR and dropped most of his chances but I wouldn’t give up on him yet.  D

TE

Julius Thomas -- The former college basketball player had a huge game bringing in catch after catch in the first half on his way to 2 tds and 110 yards.  A+

Baltimore

QB

Joe Flacco -- Flacco had a much better fantasy game than I anticipated throwing for 362 yards and 2 tds on 62 passes!  Although he missed many passes and Clark dropped a td. B-

RB

Ray Rice -- I was pretty much right on my Ray Rice prediction but he rushed for even less yards than I expected (36 vs predicted 58) but he did score and catch the ball 8 times. C+

Bernard Pierce -- My Pierce prediction was spot on (4 yards off) but he got more carries than I expected. D

WR

Torrey Smith -- I got Smith’s yardage exactly right (92) but he failed score becuase of tight coverage all night by DRC. B-

mo 

Jacoby Jones --  He was hurt on a punt when a teammate ran into him but had 3 catches for 24 yards before that. INC

Brandon Stokely -- I pretty much predicted his game except he had one more catch and 10 more yards than I expected but was not key in the offense at all. C-

TE

Ed Dickson -- Dickson had an awful game splitting time with Dallas Clark and dropping passes over the middle.  We can tack that up to his injury though, for now. F